The world’s tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and K2, are associated with great mountaineering feats, a love of nature, and tales of adventure. These 8000-meter peaks also hold a dark side for climbers, however, and there are just as many stories of hardship, defeat, and death on the summits. Among these tales are a surprising number of accounts of the strange, ghostly, and supernatural.

To begin with, the atmosphere on the tallest peaks can be somewhat grim. Death is a constant possibility to be reckoned with for climbers on the highest peaks of the Himalayas and the Karakoram range, which spans Pakistan, India, and China. Over 220 people have died climbing Everest, and due to the impossibility of retrieving the fallen, the majority of bodies are left frozen on the slopes indefinitely, turning the mountains into a high-altitude cemetery.

Some of the bodies remain visible, lying close enough to the main routes that climbers are obliged to step over them. The colorful gear worn by the dead has earned Everest’s Northeast Ridge route the nickname “Rainbow Valley.” Everest, however, is not the deadliest 8000-er in terms of percentages. Since the first successful ascent of K2 in 1954, over 25 percent of those who have attempted the summit have died, while Annapurna I’s death toll is closer to 33 percent. It’s no wonder that the area between around 8000 meters and the tops of these mountains is ominously referred to as the “Death Zone.”

Given this macabre climate, it’s inevitable that some weird stories have emerged. Some of these spooky tales are informed by the mountains’ cultural and spiritual significance, and some can be explained by science, while others remain inexplicable.

The Sherpas, without whose help so many ascents of Himalayan mountains would be impossible, view the Himalayas as both the embodiment and the realm of gods. Some feel that disrespect for their sacred mountain has led to both bad karma and to restless spirits. In May 2004, Pemba Dorji Sherpa was climbing Everest, a trip during which he earned a disputed claim to the world’s fastest ascent, when he encountered what he described as black shapes near the summit. Pemba says that the shapes were the ghosts of climbers who died on the mountain, and that as the shapes approached him they held out their hands, begging for something to eat. Pemba and other Sherpas believe the ghosts will continue to haunt the mountain until a proper funeral rite can be performed for their souls.

The scientifically minded feel that ghostly sightings above 8000 meters have a much more logical explanation. The detrimental effects of time spent in the Death Zone are well-known. At high altitude, temperatures far below freezing inflict frostbite, sleep becomes difficult, and reflected light causes snow-blindness. Perhaps worst of all, though, the lack of atmospheric pressure and attendant low oxygen concentration (about 30 percent of that at sea level) can cause altitude sickness and High Altitude Cerebral Edema, or HACE. In the latter condition, the brain swells, leading to hampered speech and mental function, poor decision-making, impaired coordination, hallucinations, and loss of touch with reality.

Altitude’s effects on the brain can explain a particularly haunting moment described in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, a first-person retelling of a 1996 Everest expedition during which a severe storm killed eight climbers on the mountain and stranded several others. The incident is considered one of the worst-ever mountaineering disasters. Krakauer, descending in the midst of the mounting storm, at one point thought he encountered his teammate Andy Harris, only to discover later that he had seen an entirely different person, and that Harris had died up on the mountain.

Low oxygen and other physical stresses can also account for a common phenomenon in which mountaineers report the sense of an additional, phantom person. Dougal Haston and Doug Scott, members of a 1975 British expedition up Everest, describe a horrific night spent just below the summit with no food and problems with their oxygen supply. The men are said to have sensed a third climber with them in their snow hole, a comforting presence that talked them through their ordeal. Climber Hermann Buhl experienced something similar on his first-ever ascent of Nanga Parbat in 1953, as did Joe Simpson, whose ordeal escaping death in the Andes is described in Touching the Void.

British climber Frank Smythe, who attempted Everest several times in the 1930s, may have the most colorful story, however. He describes encountering two presences, the first being a benign one that seemed so real he offered it some of his mint cake. Later, he encountered strange hovering objects, one of which had "what looked like squat, underdeveloped wings, whilst the other had a beak-like protuberance like the spout of a teakettle. They distinctly pulsated … as though they possessed some horrible quality of life."

Michael Shermer’s book The Believing Brain reports that the so-called sensed-presence effect (referred to elsewhere as “Feelings of Presence,” or FOPs) is common to people under physical and mental duress, including mountain climbers, polar explorers, endurance athletes, and isolated sailors. An experiment conducted by a Swiss team in 2014 and reported in Current Biology seems to confirm this. Researchers managed to induce in volunteers the experience of nearby ghostly presences by creating a disconnect in motor-sensory signals received by the brain, causing the brain’s sense of the body in space to malfunction. Researchers suggest that FOPs, or ghosts, may be an illusion created by the mind when it temporarily loses track of the body’s location due to mental illness, stress, or extreme physical exertion or duress.

Not all mountaineering ghost stories can be explained away so easily, however. Jennifer Jordan’s book Savage Summit, which details the lives and feats of the first five women to climb K2, also presents a few accounts that would not be out of place in a book of ghost stories. Wanda Rutkiewicz, an accomplished Polish mountaineer who in 1986 became the first woman ever to climb K2, survived the descent and went on to climb several other 8000-foot mountains before dying in her bid to climb Kanchenjunga in 1992. After Rutkiewicz’s death, Jordan writes, her friend Ewa Matuszewska was awoken in the middle of the night by a telephone call, and upon answering heard Rutkiewicz’s voice on the other end of the line. Delighted to hear her friend’s voice, Matuszewska pleaded, “We are all in despair. Where are you?”

The voice responded,“I am cold, I am very cold, but don’t cry. Everything will be fine.”

“But why aren’t you coming back?” Matuszewska persisted.

“I cannot now,” Wanda’s voice said, before the phone went dead.

Equally chilling is a story from Jordan’s book involving Julie Tullis, a British climber and the third woman to summit K2. Tullis’s accomplishment took place in July of 1986. The months surrounding her climb saw 13 deaths on K2, which came to be known as the Black Summer. During her descent with her partner Kurt Diemberger, Tullis suffered a bad fall, severe frostbite to one hand, and blurred vision likely stemming from HACE. She died while trapped at Camp IV with several other climbers, and her body was left on the mountain.

Years later, in 1992, Thor Kieser and Scott Fisher, members of an American-Russian team, were jolted out of an unusual quiet at base camp by the sound of a voice coming over the communications radio. “Camp IV to Base Camp, do you read, over?” the voice said. Both Kieser and Fisher knew that no one was on the mountain at that time. And the voice was that of a British woman.

The Pacific Northwest is a hotbed of paranormal activity. Whether it’s sightings of the illusive, hairy Sasquatch or extraterrestrial visitors streaking across the sky, we experience more than our share of the mysterious.

In the early months of 2015, there were more than 1,100 UFO sightings nationwide. Washington is third on the list of states with the most sightings overall. If the possibility of aliens doesn’t intrigue you, consider that a Pew Research poll reports that “nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) say they’ve seen or been in the presence of a ghost…An even greater share – 29% – say they have felt in touch with someone who has already died.”

Whether you have doubts or, in the spirit of the X-Files, just want to believe, the upcoming UFO/Paranormal Summit at Quinault Beach Resort and Casino on March 4-5 can help. This will be the inaugural year for the event and is the brainchild of Johnny Manson of Sasquatch Summit fame.

Manson, a Grays Harbor radio and television personality, explains that through the Summit “we are hoping to cover everything paranormal: ancient sea creatures, Sasquatch (there is a paranormal aspect), UFO, alien abduction, implants, ghosts, fairies, and the research and physical evidence surrounding these topics.”

There will be 10 speakers over the course of two days, many from MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, and SUFON, the Seattle UFO Network. These experts in the field were glad to participate in the Summit. Says Manson, “MUFON members had attended last year’s Sasquatch Summit and were very impressed with how it was run. When they heard that we were going to do a UFO/Paranormal Summit, they were very interested in participating. They have been a huge help.”

Aside from expert lectures, there will be a Witness Town Hall, meet and greet social, vendors, art, and food and drink options provided by Quinault Beach Resort. The hotel will also be offering event packages which include a two night stay and entry to the Summit. There are a limited number of rooms available with the discount code UFO so book early by calling 888-461-2214. Only staying one night? March and April discounts are available for Sunday through Thursday stays with code WIN1.

Tickets for the event are available online or at the door. A 2-day pass is $30 and includes all activities in the Great Hall, Hall Lobby, and extensive resort grounds.

Manson hopes to match the approximately 300 attendees who attended the first Sasquatch Summit. He and his team are also accepting vendor applications for the event.

Stay up to the minute by following the Summit on Facebook or contact Manson via the event’s website.

Even for a weekend stay-cation, Quinault Beach Resort makes it easy to stay, play, and learn. While at the Summit, be sure to enjoy their many spa and gaming options in between the amazing food, ocean-front views, and nearby outdoor attractions.

It’s been reported that more than half of Americans believe in intelligent alien life, with more than 75% of responders thinking such aliens have visited Earth. Wherever you stand on this issue, the UFO/Paranormal Summit welcomes you to experience the unusual, close to home.

The Quinault Beach Resort is located at 78 State Route 115 in Ocean Shores.

University of Missouri assistant professor Melissa Click is out of work, fired by the school’s Board of Curators several months after she was captured on video calling for “some muscle” to physically intimidate a student journalist who was covering a campus protest.

“The board respects Dr. Click’s right to express her views and does not base this decision on her support for students engaged in protest or their views,” Henrickson said, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. “However, Dr. Click was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student.”

Henrickson said the curators had hired investigators who reviewed videos and documents, and conducted over 20 interviews. In her statement, Henrickson cited the fact that – at the Homecoming parade – Click cursed at a police officer who was relocating protesters from the street. In addition, Henrickson noted that during the November 9 Concerned Student 1950s protest “when she interfered with members of the media and students who were exercising their rights in a public space and called for intimidation against one of our students, we believe demands serious action.”

“She has the right to appeal her termination,” Henrickson said. “The board went to significant lengths to ensure fairness and due process.”

Interim Chancellor Hank Foley said the process the curators used to fire Click was “not typical.”

“These have been extraordinary times in our university’s history, and I am in complete agreement with the board that the termination of Dr. Click is in the best interest of our university,” Foley said. “Her actions in October and November are those that directly violate the core values of our university.”

In January more than 100 Republican Missouri lawmakers sent a letter to the school’s top officials calling for Click’s termination. The letter charged that Click “failed to meet the obligations she has to her supervisors, fellow professors, University students, and the taxpayers of Missouri” when she called for “muscle” against the student reporters.

“The fact that, as a professor teaching in the communication department and school of journalism, she displayed such a complete disregard for the First Amendment rights of reporters should be enough to question her competency and aptitude for her job,” the lawmakers wrote. “It should be evident that these actions are inappropriate, illegal and unacceptable for a faculty member of the University of Missouri.”

In the letter, the GOP lawmakers also raised questions about Click’s research projects which her university bio states “involve 50 Shades of Grey readers, the impact of social media in fans’ relationship with Lady Gaga, masculinity and male fans, messages about class and food in reality television programming, and messages about work in children’s television programs.”

The Missouri House Budget Committee will consider a spending bill next week that cuts $402,000 from the Columbia campus budget – an amount equal to Click’s salary as well as that of her department chair and the dean of the College of Arts and Science – and $7.6 million from the University of Missouri System’s administrative budget.

State Rep. Chuck Basye (R) wrote to members of the Downtown Community Improvement District board that Click is a symbol that is hurting the university.

“Everybody that I talked to said it would be a step in the right direction and would show some leadership,” Basye said Thursday. “I firmly believe she should have been terminated after the first video.”

The Board of Curators had voted on January 27 to suspend Click with pay. That decision was criticized by the school’s Faculty Council and the American Association of University Professors.

Click “is a flashpoint that allows us to potentially begin to move away from a backward-looking dialogue to a more forward-facing dialogue,” state Rep. Caleb Rowden (R) said Thursday. “I think it would help” if she were fired.

In November, a group of student protesters called #ConcernedStudent1950, fueled by Black Lives Matter, forced university president Tim Wolfe to resign amid charges of failing to address racism on campus. School chancellor R. Bowen Loftin also resigned. The students put together a list of demands, one of which was for Wolfe to “acknowledge his white male privilege.” The protests spread rapidly to other college campuses across the country.

It was discovered, however, that Mizzou activist Jonathan Butler had falsified a key claim that was made against Wolfe – that he was hit by a car carrying the university president in the school’s homecoming parade. A video later revealed that Butler himself actually rushed toward the car.

CASEBOOK ~ WHERE THE JOURNEY OF ENLIGHTENMENT ~ STARTS WITH AN OPEN MIND...

"Musical compositions can be very sad - Chopin - but you have the pleasure of this sadness. The cheap consolation is: you will be happy. The higher consolation is the pleasure and recognition of your unhappiness, the pleasure of having recognised that fate, destiny and life are such as they are and so you reach a higher form of consciousness." ~ Umberto Eco

SHALOM...Z

EDIT TO ADD:

"People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged." ~ Umberto Eco

FOND DU LAC, Wis. — At Benson's Hide-A-Way, owner Bill Benson stands in the bar, his back to a wall plastered with posters of space aliens and UFOs.

Also in the venue are vodka glasses shaped like an alien's head, a walking stick with alien eyes and two tin-foiled hats, worn so space creatures don't mess with the human brain. He brings over a jar marked with a biohazard sticker that's filled with milky water and something lumpy inside with black-coal eyes.

"People come from all over to see this," he said Thursday, of what he believes is a man from outer space.

Most people have heard of UFO hot spots in America such as Area 51 along State 375 in Nevada and across the rocky landscape surrounding Roswell, New Mexico. But many Wisconsinites might not know that there is one in their own backyard at Campbellsport's Long Lake, which Benson calls the UFO capital of the world.

Every summer for 28 years, Campbellsport is host to the UFO Daze, which draws hundreds of people for a day of extraterrestrial events on Long Lake. This year's event is July 16.

But UFO aficionados aren't only hitting up Campbellsport. They are sprinkled throughout the state, including in Fond du Lac.

On Wednesday, Herman Bender, an independent researcher with a background in geology, and Rick Whaley, a professor at Marian University, hosted a presentation on local UFO sightings as part of their eight-week program held at the Fond du Lac Public Library called "Big Histories of Futures Past." More than 100 people attended.

Bender presented two unsolved cases, one from 1976 when a UFO and two green men were supposedly spotted by a Malone farmer and his son. Another case from February 1993 in Dodge County involved two sheriff's deputies chasing a moving object, which suddenly disappeared.

Bender said he has evidence that these sightings were most likely of flying machines from another planet.

A lot of people in Wisconsin are seeing UFOs, Bender said, but they are afraid to talk about it. There's a history of ridiculing people who claim to see these objects. But the more people who come forward, the more legitimate the sightings become, he claims.

"Nobody in their right mind is going to make this stuff up and subject themselves to ridicule," Bender said. "Why would you ever want to to do that?"

At the Hide-A-Way bar, Benson has a book of pictures given to him by patrons, full of black skies and strange lights.

He can explain why every shining light is not a star or an airplane or a planet. To him, they are spaceships from a world far away.

"I've seen so much and I want to share it," Benson said. "I want others to share with me so we can have an understanding of the phenomenon."

Georges Treville appeared as Sherlock Holmes in a number of short features in 1912. His series of films was the first officially authorised series of Holmes Films, produced under the supervision of Conan Doyle himself. This is the 8th and final episode it is also the only episode that survives.